The choir department is at their busiest time of year when they encounter most of their events. In the course of three months, they will have more than six competitions and performances.

All of the choir students recently attended an overnight trip to San Francisco on Dec. 17 where they watched the musical “Wicked” and caroled at three major hotels.

“I thought the trip was a lot of fun; it was a chance for the choir to just have a break and hang out with all of the other choir members as well as have an early start to Christmas break,” said junior Cid Diaz.

Different from previous years of performing the annual Winter Concert at the McAfee Center, the concert was held at the Foothill Retirement Home on Dec. 15 this year. Students wrote letters to the elderly in advance to invite them to the concert. The students also gave them each a CD of the choir’s songs.

“Some people were crying, which I thought was the cutest thing because they really appreciated our performance,” said sophomore Alison Knysh.

Students are looking the most forward to traveling to Southern California where the whole music department will compete in the Anaheim Heritage Music Festival from April 8-11. Choir members are excited to go to Disneyland, spend time with their friends who are in other music departments and participate in the festival because it takes place on a higher scale compared to other competitions.

“We usually place well when we compete in the Heritage Festival, especially in the Concert Choir division. This year will be a challenge, though, particularly because of the inexperience many of our sections have relative to that of past years,” said senior Joe Stevens.

These trips are planned to allow the choir to explore new boundaries of singing and it builds and strengthens friendships within the group. The events also let the group rehearse and perform out of normal environments of concerts at the McAfee Center. With the way things are going right now, students believe that they are going to do very well in the upcoming events.

There are many performances coming up in the spring such as the Jazz Cabaret where students dance with their friends to jazz music on March 6; the Pancake Breakfast which takes place on May 2 and they sing to teachers and parents while they enjoy their breakfast; the CMEA Choral Competition on May 7-8; the End of the Year Concert on May 26; and the Memorial Day Performance on May 31.